Torture Device or Jewelry?
by Maekala
Summary: During a routine search, Nick and Warrick find something. Is it a torture device? No. And how is it Sara knows exactly what it is?


Nick sighed as he glanced around the room again. He really didn't see anything else here, but Grissom had insisted that there might be something of use here; thus, the reason why he had sent Warrick and Sara with him. They had been searching this house for evidence for three hours and nothing unusual was revealing itself.

Grabbing his kit, he went in search of one of his cohorts. Maybe they had at least found something interesting. He still remembered the time that Warrick had found four colourful dildos hidden behind the fish tank in a very conservative house. The jokes for that one had abounded. He heard Warrick rummaging around in the bathroom and he was pretty sure that Sara was in the kitchen. As the bathroom was closer, he peeked in on his best friend.

"Hey, man. Find anything?"

Warrick grunted a negative. Nick watched him for a moment, looking around this room and deciding that it was another example of boring middle-class suburban America. That is, until Warrick suddenly stood up and called him over.

"What the hell is this?"

Nick had no idea what the object between Warrick's fingers was. It looked to be about an inch long, maybe a little shorter. It was some sort of metal bar…with a ball on either end. The thing was tiny (but also big at the same time) and Nick had no idea what it could possibly be used for. Both of their eyes widened as Warrick found he could screw off both of the balls to reveal a rather sharp looking end.

"Hey, Sara," called Nick. "Can you come take a look at this?"

A moment later, Sara stood behind Nick and looked at the object which held their attention. "What do ya got?"

"I don't know," said Warrick, still marvelling at the thing in his hand. "It looks like it could be some sort of miniature torture device, but I have no idea where you could conceal something like this."

Sara had to pinch herself to keep from snorting her amusement. "Uh, guys. That's not some sort of torture device."

"How do you know?" asked Nick, looking over his shoulder and seeing the growing smirk. "Alright, Miss Know-It-All, what is it?"

Sara looked between the two men, genuinely surprised that in their line of work, they did not know what that was. "It's a tongue ring. You know, kid has someone drive a needle through their tongue and then they stick that through." Sara really did start laughing as Nick and Warrick stared at her, disbelieving. "You guys seriously didn't know that?"

Warrick looked between the alleged tongue ring and Sara. "This isn't a tongue ring; its too long."

Sara held out her hand. "Let me see it." Warrick carefully placed the object in her outstretched palm, half expecting the thing to blow up at the change of hands. Sara quickly glanced over it, before nodding her head as if all had been revealed. "It's a training bar."

"A what?" questioned Nick.

"A training bar." Sara chuckled again at the pair's confusion. "When you first get your tongue pierced, it tends to swell, so they give you a training bar."

"What's the difference?"

"A training bar is 7/8 of an inch, whereas most regular bars are 5/8 of an inch. This is a training bar. And judging by how dusty it is, I'd say that its been at least six months since whoever's it is got their tongue pierced."

Warrick nodded, still not completely convinced, but willing to play a theory. "Okay, but what is this?" he asked, as he pulled out a clear spike. It had a rubber ring around the bottom and the apparent top was flattened. "That looks like torture to me."

Sara's smile continued to grow. "That, boys, is a retainer."

Nick shook his head, happy to have found her in a lie. "See, now I know you're lying. I've been to the dentist plenty of times and I've never seen that at a dentist's office."

Sara laughed at Nick's mistake. "Not that kind of retainer. You wear it when you don't want anyone to know that you have your tongue pierced. They make the hole near impossible to see. In fact, you can only tell its there if you deliberately stick out your tongue that so that the hole can be seen through the plastic." Sara pushed past Nick to place the objects back in the drawer where Warrick had found them. "Come on. We're not gonna find anything else here. Let's get back to the lab."

Greg held his sides with laughter after hearing of Nick and Warrick's first encounter with tongue rings. "Oh, Sara. They seriously didn't know what they were?"

Sara's eyes sparkled at the retelling. "Apparently not. I don't think they've ever come across one outside the mouth. Isn't that weird?"

"Yeah. Besides, I would think that at least Warrick would know what it was, especially where he grew up." Greg wiped tears from his eyes.

Sara shrugged and smiled as the objects of their laughter walked into the room.

Greg couldn't resist the chance to push the men a little further. "Did you guys seriously think that a tongue ring was a torture device?" he asked, beginning to laugh again.

Nick puffed out his chest, insulted that he hadn't been able to figure it out. "Hey. Its not like we see them everyday." Warrick nodded.

"Still. They're not that hard to figure out!"

Warrick shook his head, thinking that Greg was enjoying this a little more than was absolutely necessary. "What I don't get, Sara: how did you know what they were? I mean, Nicky and I didn't even know."

Greg's grin only got bigger. "She's from California, man. That stuff's all over the place."

Warrick glared at Greg, before turning back to Sara. "But you really knew. I mean, all that talk about training bars and retainers—its like you actually had one or something."

Nick froze and looked at Warrick then stared at Sara. Sara was smiling devilishly and Greg was on the floor, laughing so hard.

"Nuh uh. No way."

Warrick looked at Nick, utter confusion crossing his face again until he realized what Nick was thinking. "Don't be ridiculous, bro. There's no way that Sara has her tongue pierced. We would've seen it."

Both men looked at Sara, silently asking her to confirm or deny.

Sara got up from the couch and headed out of the break room. "Its not that big a deal, guys."

Before she could leave, though, Nick called after her. "Come on, Sar. Do you?"

Sara turned at the break room door, glanced between both men, smiled at Greg who had gained some self-control and stuck her tongue out for the world to see. There, in the middle of her tongue, was a piece of plastic through which you could see a darker spot, indicating a hole. She then turned, smiling to herself, and left the room to the sound of Greg's laughter at the looks on Nick and Warrick's faces.


End file.
